Apple is making a multi-billion dollar mistake or something

“The world has become clogged with quality content. Netflix makes so much of it that it’s hard to keep up, and Amazon throws in a bunch of highly regarded shows as a perk for people who pay for free two-day shipping,” Daniel B. Kline writes for The Motley Fool. “Add in HBO, the slew of top-tier programs offered on basic cable, and even the occasional quality program offered by the broadcast networks, and there’s simply too much for most people to watch.”
“Apple, however, has chosen to ignore the crowded marketplace. It wants to plunge into the original video market, with plans to spend $4.2 billion by 2022 according to Variety,” Kline writes. “The company has not made it entirely clear what it’s going to do with billions of dollars worth of original content.”
MacDailyNews Take: But, I’m going to puke up a few buckets worth of speculative blather anyway.
“There are rumors that the company will start a streaming service to take on Netflix, Amazon, Disney+, HBO, and the rest, but that actually seems not all that likely,” Kline writes. “Instead, it’s much more plausible that Apple intends to make video part of its streaming music service. The shows would be a sort of bonus for members, and a way to differentiate Apple Music from its near-identical rivals.”
MacDailyNews Take: Not according to CNBC, which reported in October that owners of Apple devices will find the content in the “TV” app and it will be free to Apple device owners along with subscription “channels,” which will allow customers to sign up for HBO, etc.
Try to keep up, Daniel.
Kline writes, “Both ideas are sort of terrible.”
MacDailyNews Take: So much for keeping up.
“Apple — even with its huge customer base — lacks the intellectual property to build its own streaming service,” Kline writes. “It could certainly create a few good shows, but that would not be enough to get customers to sign up when so many rivals offer so much more.”
MacDailyNews Take: Again, “free to Apple device owners.” And, “Apple lacks the intellectual property to build its own streaming service?” Whaaa?
Kline writes, “Video as a bonus for Apple Music subscribers also seems like a waste.”
MacDailyNews Take: Again, “in the TV app,” not Apple Music because – duh – it’s not music.
“It’s easy to see why Apple wants this: Hit shows bring a level of prestige that’s hard to attain otherwise. The gap between that prestige and any business metrics, however, is too big a gulf to bridge. Premium content is expensive, and most of it will get a niche audience at best,” Kline writes. “Consumers aren’t going to broadly add or keep a service because it has a couple of hit shows.”
“The potential rewards make creating premium video a bad bet for Apple,” Kline writes. “This is a vanity project that will deliver negligible benefits at best and pour money into an expensive drain at worst.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Kline’s pronouncements are David Goldstein-esque:
This is a vanity project that will deliver negligible benefits at best and pour money into an expensive drain at worst. – Daniel B. Kline, December 11, 2018
I give [Apple] two years before they’re turning out the lights on a very painful and expensive mistake. – David Goldstein, Channel Marketing Corp. President, commenting on Apple’s plan to open retail locations, May 21, 2001
iCal’ed for future use.
SEE ALSO:
Apple plans to launch TV streaming service first in the U.S., then swiftly expand globally with free original content – October 23, 2018
Gene Munster: A free content strategy is the right approach for Apple – October 16, 2018
Apple plans to give away original content for free to device owners as part of new digital TV strategy – October 10, 2018